Golem

[Butterman]

Maybe you could group units into squads. Graphics artist can then find interesting ways to visualize the size and composition of a squad.
Each square could then be occupied by at most 1 squad.

In the simple case you would have homogeneous squads and each unit has several images e.g. 1 unit, 2 units, 3 units and many units.
Going with heterogeneous squads gives more flexibility, but takes a bit more work to visualize.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I think for now, I'm going to put baddies in and a rough mission.

Release it to you guys and you can tell me what you think, what needs changing etc.

 

[GreenDream]

With the unit stacking, maybe when they are idle and stacked, perhaps there could be a number when you select a stack indicating the amount of units?

 

[Timstertoo]

Looks like great fun!

Keep it up!

 

[God Ginrai]

So, I'm kind of stuck at the moment.

I implemented "soldier bots" as well as a "marker tool" that you can use to direct how you want your army to be split up, rather than controlling individual units. Right now they head towards markers and all sit together on them, so you can't see how many are actually in a "squad". Now that they're all sat together, when they move they move looking like just a single bot.

What do you think is the best way to visualize more than one bot?

Here's a couple of ways I've been thinking of doing it:

1: Implement more "randomness" in moment so you can see sides of bots poking out when they move and when they're stationary.
2: Have a little number in the corner of tiles with soldiers displaying how many are present
3: Have soldiers split up into adjacent squares around the marker.

I think implementation of all three could work really well, what do you guys think?

How would you split up units in a group if you could not select them individually? (Let's say that I had a team of 10 that I wanted to split up into 2 teams of 5 for example) Also, if you do have them stack, then I would suggest doing the number in the corner thing. However, I am much more partial to the soldiers splitting up into adjacent squares thing.

-God Ginrai

 

[Butterman]

How would you split up units in a group if you could not select them individually? (Let's say that I had a team of 10 that I wanted to split up into 2 teams of 5 for example) Also, if you do have them stack, then I would suggest doing the number in the corner thing. However, I am much more partial to the soldiers splitting up into adjacent squares thing.

-God Ginrai

I'm not planning on having indivdual unit control. To send units to different places you create more than one "target" and they'll split up between them. You can also prioritize targets by clicking them more than once. Eg, if you've got two waypoints and click one twice it's going to have a twice as high priority. Meaning with 10 units, 2.5 would go to the low priority one and 7.5 to the the high priority one. Meaning you could have low priority defensive targets and high priority offensive ones.

I don't want individual unit control because I think it over complicates things, EG did this very well with even less unit control, you had to set up systems of security cameras and speakers to spot targets for the minions to head to.

My current plan is to make the units split up as much as possible over a small area around the target as well as having corner numbers to display any units that stack, if units have to stack.

I'm going to release a "combat prototype" soon, just so you guys can give it a test and tell me if it works well.

 

[bzar]

^ I approve of this kind of high-level strategic control over units

(Disclaimer: not that it needs my approval, just another way of saying I like it)

 

[God Ginrai]

How would you split up units in a group if you could not select them individually? (Let's say that I had a team of 10 that I wanted to split up into 2 teams of 5 for example) Also, if you do have them stack, then I would suggest doing the number in the corner thing. However, I am much more partial to the soldiers splitting up into adjacent squares thing.

-God Ginrai

I'm not planning on having indivdual unit control. To send units to different places you create more than one "target" and they'll split up between them. You can also prioritize targets by clicking them more than once. Eg, if you've got two waypoints and click one twice it's going to have a twice as high priority. Meaning with 10 units, 2.5 would go to the low priority one and 7.5 to the the high priority one. Meaning you could have low priority defensive targets and high priority offensive ones.

I don't want individual unit control because I think it over complicates things, EG did this very well with even less unit control, you had to set up systems of security cameras and speakers to spot targets for the minions to head to.

My current plan is to make the units split up as much as possible over a small area around the target as well as having corner numbers to display any units that stack, if units have to stack.

I'm going to release a "combat prototype" soon, just so you guys can give it a test and tell me if it works well.

That sounds good. I'll look forward to the demo.

-God Ginrai

 

[Butterman]

Just so you know, I'm only releasing a .pnd for the prototype. No point testing a user interface on windows that's going to be used on the Pandora.

 

[God Ginrai]

Just so you know, I'm only releasing a .pnd for the prototype. No point testing a user interface on windows that's going to be used on the Pandora.

T_T Looks like I'll have to wait for my Pandora to enjoy the demo.

-God Ginrai

 

[jottt]

Evil Genius?
Dungeon Keeper?

+ Story?

Sounds lovely! I miss these type of games ever since.

And it really hurt to play Evil Genius...such a lovely idea, such a lovely game, so horribly buggy and no successor I did it more than once and it annoyed me every time.

 

[Butterman]

Just so you know, I'm only releasing a .pnd for the prototype. No point testing a user interface on windows that's going to be used on the Pandora.

T_T Looks like I'll have to wait for my Pandora to enjoy the demo.

-God Ginrai

Don't worry, I'm not going to release it until I've got my pandora.

 

[BaDToaD]

What about having a group and formation button. i.e. you move the units in a group that's stacked on 1 tile then hit the formation button and they spread out a bit. Hit group and they reform on one tile ready to move again. Have the number appear when the units are stacked.

 

[Receiver]

This looks great, a fantastic piece of homebrew. This, in my opinion, is where homebrew really excels- creating unique experiences that you can't get elsewhere. Games that can be emulated had whole teams at their disposal, so why try to go up against them? If you create something innovative, unique, and cool, your game can stand on it's own merits.

but yes, this looks fantastic, a cool concept and I'd love to see more about how it will work

 

[Butterman]

What about having a group and formation button. i.e. you move the units in a group that's stacked on 1 tile then hit the formation button and they spread out a bit. Hit group and they reform on one tile ready to move again. Have the number appear when the units are stacked.

I like the idea a lot and I'll write it down, but again, it's getting too deep into direct control.

This looks great, a fantastic piece of homebrew. This, in my opinion, is where homebrew really excels- creating unique experiences that you can't get elsewhere. Games that can be emulated had whole teams at their disposal, so why try to go up against them? If you create something innovative, unique, and cool, your game can stand on it's own merits.

but yes, this looks fantastic, a cool concept and I'd love to see more about how it will work

Yup, too much time spent making the latest SSAO or tessellation technique look good

 

[Masterfurbix]

The tileset is what, 15-20 images?

PM it to me, and I'll get you some Hi-res, superfangled, high octane, calcium fortified, good old spritework this evening at the latest.

 

[Butterman]

Amigo is on board helping me with art now, this is what he's been up to so far.

 

[Mithrildor]

great update

 

[bzar]

Looks a lot nicer already . How's the code coming along?

 

[Butterman]

Looks a lot nicer already . How's the code coming along?

I've got combat implemented, I'm going to work on the graphics for it this weekend, like rockets and shit.

Going to have to code in particle effects for pretty explosions too.